ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS---PASSICAGLIA AND FUGUE IN C MINOR
Being the eighth part of THE RIKASHA INCIDENT--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz
ACT FOUR--THE CRUCIBLE
I. THE FIRST TRIAL
Space Battleship Argo
Planet Iscandar
Wednesday, March 3, 2202
0632 Hours Spacetime
Captain Derek Wildstar was
up, awake, and sitting at the Combat station on the Argo.
The roar of the wave motion engine was building up below in the Engine Room.
He, Venture, Nova, Sandor, Parsons, Yamazaki, Dash and Homer were all at their
usual posts on the
They were looking up at the
main video panel. Lysis was reporting in.
"As I have just
informed Leader Desslok," said Lysis as his image disappeared in a burst
of noise and static for a moment. "A...huge black cloud has just warped in
just beyond the edge of the Sanzar System at bisect RN-52. In your measure, it
is over a hundred thousand kilometers wide, and there's an energy source at the
heart of it. I'll send you a view of it now."
The bridge crew looked up
and saw a huge, black gaseous mass approaching the Sanzar System. It looked
like a huge cloud, but then, it flashed with bizarre pink and blue lightning
discharges from the inside.
"There's a fleet
coming from it," said Lysis a moment later. "Over a hundred ships
just came out of the object. It doesn't look like they're going to let us
investigate...your assistance would be appreciated, Star Force..."
The transmission suddenly
went dead.
"Message from
Starsha!" cried Homer.
"Put her on the video
panel."
Starsha's image came up.
"Captain Wildstar, you recall the strategy that Desslok and I arranged
this morning?"
"Yes, we do. I'm glad
that you and he were able to come to terms."
"I did so reluctantly,
Captain, at the advice of Aliscea and her mother, Astrena. I would like you to
stick to what we arranged. It is important. Also, Aliscea's entering some kind
of trance, and wants you to take off now. Paul is with her. She said just two
words before she...entered her trance."
"They were?'
"He's here."
"Thank you, Queen
Starsha."
"The best of luck to
you, Captain." Then, the screen went dark.
"Well, let's not waste
any time!" barked Captain Wildstar. "Yamazaki,
how's the engine?"
"Both boosters are
balanced and running."
"Weigh anchor,"
said Derek.
"Weighing
anchor," said Venture.
The Argo's rocket
anchor came up as the space battleship's navigation lights went on.
"Ahead, slow speed.
Clear the dock!"
"Ahead, slow,"
repeated Venture.
With a roar, the Argo
began to cruise forward away from
"Derek, the wind is
picking up," said Nova. "I'm not sure what's causing
it...maybe..."
"No need to
worry," he said. "Venture, give us more speed."
"Roger."
The Argo picked up speed, rushing on as the
ship's store of wave motion energy built up.
On the dock, Astra, Conor,
Jonathan, a few others were waving goodbye, wishing the Argo Godspeed as
the huge space battleship roared off into battle to help defend Iscandar
against Ekogaru's immediate onslaught and to defend Earth against the Dark
Lord's future attack.
"Energy's building up;
it's at 100% now."
"Sixty seconds to
liftoff," said Venture.
"All hands, brace for
takeoff," said Captain Wildstar over the ship's PA system.
Down below, hands in
different Groups were fastening their safety belts.
"Wave energy, now at
120%!" said Yamazaki.
"Argo,
ascend!" said Wildstar.
"Argo, taking
off," said Venture. He pulled back on the yoke, and the Argo reared
up out of Iscandar's blue sea, seeking the sky and the sunrise. At last, the
great and terrible moment had begun.
With the Star Force's
mission now almost two months old, the showdown with Ekogaru himself had
started.
Not long after the Argo
blasted away from Iscandar, Leader Desslok contacted them.
"You were going to go
out and assist Lysis at RN-52 at the edge of the system?" asked Desslok.
"Yes, we were,"
said Captain Wildstar. "Is something wrong?"
Desslok stood in thought.
"I was able to arrange a strategy of sorts with Queen Starsha and
her...Consort. Her Consort would like us to bring down as many enemy ships as
possible before they enter the system. I would like you to assist Lysis, if you
can until I get there. Then, leave the battle to me. When you break off the
engagement with the enemy, Queen Starsha would like you to enter the cloud and
probe it to ascertain the size of the enemy Fortress; then she would like you
to warp back to Iscandar with the results."
"That was similar to
what we discussed with Starsha this morning, Desslok. Thank you."
"My best wishes to you
and Lysis in the battle," said Desslok. "I hope to see you
soon."
"Thank you," said
Captain Wildstar.
"Well?" said
Venture.
"We're going to have
to execute a space warp," said Derek. "Mark, prepare to warp us
straight to RN-52. Nova, calculate a course as soon as possible. Yamazaki,
prepare the wave engine for a space warp."
"Yessir," they
said.
Once again, so much
depends upon us,
thought Derek as his crew got to work.
On Iscandar, Aliscea knelt
in Starsha's audience chamber at the top of her tower in
"How is it
going?" asked Starsha softly. Paul stood there in silence with his hand on
his wife's shoulder, willing strength into her frail body.
"Thank you for helping
me to focus," said Aliscea as her tears hit the floor. "I have been
in touch with Ekogaru's dark spirit ever since the sun came up."
"And?"
"I've succeeded, so
far, in befuddling him, I think. He doesn't think there's any life here on
Iscandar. That's what I want him to think. I want him to be kept befuddled and
distracted until he draws close enough to Iscandar for me to be able to do
something. Then, I want to go to the balcony. You know what I have to do,
Starsha."
The Queen nodded, tears in
her eyes.
"Are you going to live
through this?" asked Paul. "You...were with me last night, and you
said it might be the last time..."
"It might well
be," said Aliscea. "All of you will live, but I may not. I don't know
how it will happen, but...I have foreseen..."
"Starsha, what will
the Gamilons and the Star Force be doing?" asked Alex.
"They will be distracting
him," said Starsha. "Ekogaru means to attack both by spiritual and
conventional means. Your brother and the Gamilons will, I hope, hold off the
conventional attack. Aliscea must hold off the spiritual attack. It is on
her."
Alex looked in pity at the
trembling woman barely out of her teens. He wondered how she could stop
something as immense as Ekogaru's Fortress...
II. AT POINT RN-52
Space Battleship Argo
The Edge of the Sanzar
System
Wednesday, March 3, 2202
0707 Hours Spacetime
A burst of multi-colored light appeared in deep space
at the very edge of the Sanzar System. A quick moment passed, and the burst of
light solidified into the space battleship Argo.
Venture sat calmly at his
post as the usual hum faded. "Warp completed," he said.
"I've spotted Lysis'
fleet on radar," said Nova. "They're not far from us."
"Communication from
General Lysis," said Homer.
This time, Captain Wildstar
saluted when Lysis came on the screen. After a long pause, Lysis returned the
salute.
"Captain Wildstar;
we're using Attack Plan Gamma as we practiced the other day. Per that plan, I'd
like you to just keep back. My fleet is going to engage the enemy battleships
when they emerge from the black cloud around the Fortress. We'll keep them busy
while you prepare your wave motion gun. When I send a single microburst of
data, my fleet will part to permit you to fire."
"Lysis, if we do that,
you might..."
"I know,
Wildstar," said Lysis. "I have met Death before and have made my
peace with her. If I die today in the defense of the Empire, it will be a good
death. An honorable death. I will have gone down
fighting at my Leader's orders. There is one last thing I would like to say
before we part."
"Which is?"
"If I do not see you
again, I see now why Captain Avatar chose you to be his successor, Captain
Wildstar. Like him, you are a brave and resourceful commander. If I die today,
it will be an honor to die as your comrade. Farewell."
"Thank you,
General," said Captain Wildstar. Derek took a deep breath. "Good
luck."
Lysis nodded, and the
screen went black.
"Derek, Lysis' fleet
is spreading out," said Nova.
"He's also putting a
destroyer screen around us," said Holly from her post.
Artwork:
"Technomugar Battlewagon" Based upon original Yamato
artwork-computer-altered by Frederick P. Kopetz
A moment later, the battle
began. The Technomugar Fleet attacked first, targeting destroyer after
destroyer in Lysis' fleet. The smaller Gamilon destroyers fought back bravely,
but their guns were unable to penetrate the armor of the large, hulking black
enemy battlewagons. The enemy ships fired as one, sending gouts of green fire
at the defending Gamilons.
Brave soldiers died in
quick agony as they faced the frustration of being unable to fend off their
attackers despite their best efforts.
"This isn't any
good!" yelled Volgarr as he watched the carnage from the
"It's not over
yet," said Lysis. "Carriers, launch attack planes! Hit those ships!
Concentrate your attack on the bridge towers. They seem to be the most
vulnerable parts of the enemy ships."
A moment later, the older,
boomerang-shaped Gamilon planes took off from the disk-shaped light Gamilon
carriers. The planes were heavy fighter-bombers, packed with missiles. Each of
the planes could manage quite a barrage.
They flew in for the attack
and began to cause damage, even though many of them were simply shot down. Some
of the Gamilon pilots were so determined to do what had to be done after they
ran out of missiles that they simply gritted their teeth and flew at the
bridges of the 600-meter long enemy battleships like Terran kamikaze
pilots of old. Like those pilots, they were yelling defiance at the enemy as they
spent their lives in efforts to bring down the enemy space battleships.
Soon, their efforts bore
fruit, even though it was bitter, as many of the enemy ships blew apart, and
others rammed into each other. But, there were enough Technomugar ships left to
continue the massacre against the Gamilons.
And, the Gamilon pilots
came on, spending their lives like dust in the wind to defend the Argo and
their flagship.
Captain Wildstar looked on at the spectacle in utter
disbelief. "Look at the way those men are dying. And to think they were
attacking us a few days ago...I don't understand it!"
"They're doing their
duty to Leader Desslok by bringing down those ships and protecting us,"
said Nova. "But...what a terrible cost! We can't
let them do that alone!"
"No, we can't,"
said Derek.
"Wildstar, we're
supposed to await our opening," said Venture.
"That's true,"
said Derek. "But, nothing says I can't send in the Tigers to help those
men out! Conroy! Take off with two squadrons at once!"
"Roger," said
Conroy a few minutes later from his cockpit. "First squadron
of Black Tigers, take off! Fourth squadron, follow me
out!"
"Acknowledged!"
cried Tatiana Lubyanska from her plane. Diane, you take care, she
thought as she prepared to take off.
The planes took off,
roaring out of their respective places aboard the Argo like burning
arrows. Soon, they joined the Gamilons in battle, attacking the bridge towers
and gun turrets of the enemy ships along with their blue and Caucasian-colored
allies from Lysis' fleet.
The Argo took a hit
or two herself, but she limited her defense to firing
at some approaching Technomugar planes with her pulse lasers. In the
background, the ominous cloud grew ever closer. Then, with the ferocity of a
sudden summer storm, several titanic energy beams roared out of the cloud,
blasting right at the enemy fleet.
Aboard Lysis' flagship,
everything went dark after the Gamilon battleship took a hit to her stern.
Lysis and Volgarr struggled
to their feet, with their bridge crew yelling status reports over the noise of
various sirens going off. Small fires had broken out in the background, and
Lysis' cyborg-repaired face was streaked with soot.
"Sir, we can't take
much more of this!" cried Volgarr.
"Calm down, all of
you!" shot back Lysis. "It's obvious now. The fleet was there to
pin us down so that the Fortress could move in for the attack. If we get that
fleet, we can launch an attack on the Fortress."
"But Desslok said we
weren't to attempt an attack."
"Did he, Volgarr? Look
at the course projection. That cloud is heading right towards Gamilon herself.
As ruined as it is, we can't let our mother world be destroyed. First, we have
to stop this fleet, then, we can mass to attack the
Fortress."
"General," said a
crewman. "The Argo has sent some of her fighter planes in to help
us, and she's firing at the enemy fleet."
"Not yet," said
Lysis. "Put me through to Wildstar!"
Lysis came up on the Argo's
main screen. "Captain Wildstar! Why are you going against our
strategy?"
"I couldn't let your
men die like that; alone," said Derek in a heated tone of voice. "And
we're under attack ourselves, now; can't you see that?"
"Damn your compassion!
Someday, it will be the death of you," said Lysis. "It was my job to
throw myself in harm's way so you could do yours. All of us are ready to die;
especially because Gamilon is threatened. It'll be good to go out like that,
today, right here, at the edge of the Sanzar System. Now, prepare your wave
motion gun and pull in your pilots. If I die, don't let it be in vain Captain
Wildstar...I..."
"General!" yelled
Volgarr in the background. "They've knocked out our aft turrets! More fire
is coming right at our stern...."
"Hard about!"
snapped Lysis. "Wildstar, we're not finished..."
Then, the screen went
white, and Derek gritted his teeth as he heard screams in the background. Screams and the sound of grinding metal. There was the dull
thud of an explosion, and then the screen went dark and silent.
From the radar, Nova wiped
away tears that she didn't expect would come. "Derek," she said in a
small voice. "They just got the Gamilon flagship. Lysis...Lysis is
dead."
"My God," said
Venture.
"He went down like
Captain Gideon did at Titan," said Sandor in a somber voice.
At her post, not sure why,
Holly Parsons fought to hold back tears. Even Dash felt a pang of regret at the
brave death of an honorable former enemy who had ended his life as an ally.
Derek gritted his teeth, and he got
up and snapped a salute while the enemy continued to attack the Argo as
well as what remained of Lysis' fleet. "Thank you, General Lysis. And farewell. Let us have that drink together in the next
life....as friends. Black Tigers, return to the ship! Dash,
stop firing. Venture, just try to evade the enemy fire as best we can.
Stop all engines! Yamazaki, prepare to transfer all power to the wave motion
gun on my mark."
"Yessir," said
Yamazaki.
"Conroy's squadron is
back in now, and Lubyanska's right behind him,"
said Homer.
"Now, Yamazaki."
said Derek.
At that, the lights on the
bridge of the Argo went dim. The preparations for firing began, even as
missiles and beams of energy streaked around the Argo like mosquitoes in
a swamp.
"Our target is the
enemy fleet," said Derek as the hum of energy buildup started. "We'll
just have to hang firm for two more minutes."
Deep inside the black cloud
that surrounded the Technomugar Fortress, Ekogaru the Great and Yvona sat
together at their massive, ornately constructed stone and brass organ; an organ
that looked like something from an ancient Gothic cathedral crossed with the
results of a nightmare. They were flanked by Vergar and by an officer known as Taramatz.
Taramatz shivered as he looked at an ornate
carving above the keyboard, right above the first row of stop knobs. It was a
skull with illuminated red eyes that looked as if it might be a kind of
ivory...or, was it actual bone from one of Ekogaru's enemies? Taramatz didn't know for sure, and, perhaps, he didn't care
to know.
"What an honor it is
to be allowed into your Sanctum, My Lord," lied Taramatz, who was merely a hundred years old.
"I had to. I have
Gralnacz out there with the Fleet," said Ekogaru. He pressed a key on his
organ and brought Gralnacz up on his screen.
"Gralnacz. Bring in your main body; leave Harat's squadron behind as a diversion. Do not let him know
that I consider him expendable for his past failures and that his squadron will
soon be a target. When you arrive back here, I shall warp to the orbit of the
ninth and tenth planets of this star system. They occupy the same orbit, and
the ninth planet flanks Gamilon, which, as the eighth planet of this system,
occupies the same orbit as Iscandar, the seventh planet. Then, I shall deal
with the ninth planet, and Desslok, before I deal with Gamilon itself.
Understood?"
"Yes, My Lord,"
said Gralnacz. "I am giving the order to recall the rest of the fleet
now."
"Yvona, how are the
efforts on Earth going?"
"I've been in touch
with Joshua," said Yvona. "Sandberg and Weiner were almost spotted,
but Cha'rif and Joshua are working to open up that second front. Through
Joshua, I've also speaking been with someone else; an officer named Christiana
Windsor. She is in Unit Five of Military Intelligence; Special Services. I
believe we have her successfully turned."
"Excellent," said
Ekogaru. "We shall warp out soon."
An anonymous voice on a
speaker said, "Gralnacz has just turned his fleet around. He is about to
warp."
On the Argo,
screened by six Gamilon destroyers that were taking heavy damage, Captain
Wildstar was almost ready to attack.
"Safety lock
opened," said Yamazaki. "The energy level is now ninety
percent."
"Sixty seconds to
firing," said Derek. "All hands, prepare anti-shock and anti-flash
defenses. Open target scope."
On the bridge crew, the goggles went down, and the
target scope came up with a buzz. "Range to enemy fleet, twenty-one
megameters," said Nova from her post. "Derek, we're right on...huh?
Half the fleet's just disappeared! They've warped!"
"Maybe they're trying
something," said Sandor.
"I still think we
should keep up the attack to get the rest of them," said Dash.
"Nova, how many
targets do we still have?" asked Derek.
"Fifty battleships,
plus escorts," she said.
"Let's get them, but
let's watch our back," said Venture.
"Thirty seconds to firing,"
said Derek.
"The energy count is
now a hundred and ten percent," said Yamazaki over the whine.
"I'm in,"
said Gralnacz.
"Good," said
Ekogaru. "Vergar! Get us out of here! Then, we
follow the plan we discussed yesterday."
"Yes, My Lord,"
said Vergar, who walked away from the organ to work a console. "Warp the
Fortress!" he ordered. "Disperse the camouflage when we emerge from
warp!"
"Yessir," said
another cold voice over a comm circuit.
Ekogaru smiled and shut his
eyes while a roar of energy built up just within their hearing range. The Grand
Fortress was ready to move again.
"Five...four...three...two...one,
ZERO!" said Derek. "FIRE!"
Wildstar pushed down on the
firing stud. The Argo's wave motion gun fired, shooting a stream of blue
death towards the enemy fleet.
On his flagship,
Technomugar General Harat screamed as the wave energy
consumed him just like it did anyone else who might get into its path without
adequate protection. The Technomugar battleships went up in flames, as they
were lighter than the Goraizu Fortress that Gralnacz had previously used to
attack Earth back in the 20th Century.
The energy beam then roared
on into the black cloud, hitting something deep within the cloud and causing a
burst of blue lightning.
For a moment, Derek Wildstar's
heart leaped. We got them? he thought. Is
that the end of Ekogaru?
Then, Holly Parsons jumped
up from her post. "Look!" she cried.
Before their eyes, the
black cloud faded away like a phantom in a bad dream, leaving only open space.
"They...they warped
out," said Nova. "It was a trick!"
A tense, pregnant moment
passed on the Argo's quiet bridge. "I wonder where they could have
gone?' said Venture. "Surely Ekogaru isn't going
to give up that easily."
"Iscandar,"
murmured Sandor. "He must be heading straight for Iscandar. He leapfrogged
over us and the Gamilon fleet."
"Nova!" cried
Derek. "Calculate a course for Iscandar...and fast!"
"Yessir," she
said with sweat running down her back under her tight uniform.
III. CHAOS AT SANZARAT
Gamilon Empire Listening
Post 38
The Ninth Planet of the
Sanzar System
Wednesday, March 3, 2202
0753 Hours Spacetime
"So, what do we have
to report to the Grand Fleet?" said a minor Gamilon officer in brown armor
who sat behind a console inside Listening Post 38 on Sanzarat.
This listening post, a small outpost on a rocky outer planet of the system, had
once been a major part of the Empire's Defense Line. The semi-abandoned post
had just been reactivated a few days ago when Desslok's fleet had re-entered
the Sanzar System.
"Nothing," said
an enlisted man who was his assistant. "The Grand Fleet's under radio
silence off between here and Gamilon, the Star Force is off with Lysis, and
Starsha hasn't even sent her regards. Boring, sir. No
action."
"Just like it was when
I was stationed here two years ago," yawned the Caucasian-skinned officer
who had been born on one of Gamilon's colony worlds and had come up through the
ranks. "All we really did of note was reported that the Argo passed
here with our recon satellites, and we left the rest of the job to Desslok.
Sadly, the Great Leader muffed it up. Lost my wife in the
holocaust that followed."
"You sound disloyal,
sir."
"I'm not disloyal,
just mad," said the officer. "Tasha was a good
wife. And, when she died, she was pregnant."
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant
Kerlak."
"Don't mention
it," said Kerlak as he lit up a cigarette and
began to smoke. "I'll find another wife...someday. When
we quit wandering, that is. Gamilon. We're
right in sight of her, and she's nothing but a big tomb for our people,"
said Kerlak as he brought a view of the mottled
green, black, and orange world up on a screen. "No one'll
ever live there again. Just too unstable. Nothing but a big piece of rock that will soon collapse into itself
sooner or later...or explode. No good to anyone, now."
The ground shook a moment
later.
"What was that?"
asked the sergeant.
"I'm not sure; this
planet isn't very geologically active; I'd better call the Gamilstadt..."
"Leader Desslok,"
said General Talan aboard Desslok's flagship. "A report
from Sanzarat. They're picking up a tremor of
some sort."
"I wonder if it has
anything to do with that sudden loss of communications from Lysis?" mused Desslok while he sat in his command chair aboard the Gamilstadt.
"I wish Wildstar would report in to let us know what's happened out
there...I..."
The Gamilstadt
rocked under them a moment later, and then, the ship heeled to starboard so
hard that most of the bridge crew, Desslok included, fell to the deck.
"What's going
on?" asked Desslok while he struggled up from the deck. "All
commanders, report..."
Suddenly, a grand wave of
hyperspatial displacement sent the Grand Fleet flying in all directions like
tenpins struck by a careening bowling ball. Through the bridge windows of his
spinning flagship, Desslok saw an expanding field of greenish-blue light, and
then saw a huge black mass, ablaze with multi-colored lights, appearing at the
center of the mass.
"Get this ship back on
course!" demanded Desslok.
"We're trying,
sir!" cried a hapless armored crewman. "She's rocking too hard for us
to manage!"
Desslok's teeth bared
themselves in a temperamental snarl as he watched the man struggling.
"Call for aid!"
"Sir...I think I can
get it my..."
"IDIOT!" yelled
Desslok as the Leader of Gamilon lost his cool for a moment and shot the
crewman with a hastily drawn sidearm.
Another two crewmen pushed
the body aside and took the unfortunate man's place. But, they couldn't get the
Gamilstadt back on course, either.
"Talan!" cried
Desslok.
"Of course, sir,"
he said. "Let me assist you."
Talan worked the helm yoke
along with the men, and as they were just able to get the ship back under
control, another wave hit.
Then, Desslok himself
jumped to the controls and helped Talan and the crewmen get his flagship back
on something of an even course again.
Talan mopped his brow a
moment later. "Sir, that was a close one."
"As if I didn't
notice," said Desslok. He looked down at the body of the crewman he had
killed and then at his own blaster. With a snarl of rage, he pulled out his own
sidearm and flung it across the bridge.
"It was my fault,
Talan," said Desslok. "When you see to the Fleet, see to it that an
appropriate message is prepared for Gernak's family.
Tell them he died doing his duty, and see to it that the family is honored and
not treated like the family of a traitor."
"Yessir."
While Talan bent to a
computer terminal to begin noting Desslok's command, a crewman called out.
"We're receiving a message!"
"From where?' asked
Desslok. He looked out into space and shivered a little as the black cloud
dispersed, and, for the first time, the Technomugar Fortress itself was
revealed to the Gamilons in all of its ugliness and arrogance. It hung many
thousands of megameters behind Sanzarat like an ugly,
black moon.
"Directly
from the Fortress.
Shall I switch to the main screen?"
Desslok nodded. Then, he
looked up as an image of nearly unrelieved blackness came on the screen.
Blackness pierced only by two gleaming red eyes.
Some of the Gamilstadt's
bridge crew fell to their knees in fear. Desslok looked around the bridge,
and, ignoring the pounding of his own heart, he drew himself up to his full
height and said, "I am Desslok, Leader of Gamilon, and Emperor of the
former domains of the Garuman Empire. Who are you?"
"You don't
recall?" said a sepulchral voice. "We spoke before; at Pellias. I am
Lord Ekogaru the Great, the Lord of the Universe. Soon, you shall bow to my
authority."
The deck of the Gamilstadt
shook. Desslok looked around and restored calm with a glance. On Sanzarat, part of the Gamilon base had collapsed. The
gravitational balance of the planet was being disturbed by the Grand Fortress
itself. The disturbance to the balance of the Sanzar System thanks to the very
presence of this twisted machine was massive, and it was felt all the way to
Gamilon and Iscandar themselves.
On Iscandar, the Palace in
"Come closer,"
she murmured.
"Aliscea, look up in
the sky. I can see that...thing from here. Do you see those lights in the sky?
Starsha says that that is it." said Paul.
"I don't want that Goddamn thing coming any closer than it already
is."
"I want him to come
closer to Iscandar without noticing it," said Aliscea. "And so does
my mother."
"How do you know
that?'
Don't you know I am in
touch with her? she sent.
Sorry, thought Paul.
"The closer he comes,
the deeper he comes into my trap," whispered Aliscea. "I'm ready for
you now, Ekogaru. I need help from no one. I can take you. Come closer. Come
on, you stinking mechanical son-of-a-bitch," said Aliscea with a smile.
"Don't provoke
him!" cried Starsha. "And where did you learn to talk like
that?"
"From him," said
Aliscea proudly, pointing to Paul. "I am the Spirit of Pellias. But thanks
to my love, I'm a little bit of South Philly, too. And, yes, I'm making him
think I'm on the Argo."
"Is he attacking
it?" said Alex. "Is Derek all right?"
"Derek is fine,"
said Aliscea. "Desslok is keeping him distracted and keeping him from
looking at the Argo," said Aliscea. "Talk away, Leader
Desslok. Then bring him ON!"
And, at that, Aliscea grew
a little brighter, and she spread her arms with a confident smile.
"Come on," she
repeated in a soft voice. "C'mon, Ekogaru...just keep on coming towards
these planets...ignore Sanzarat..."
In the meantime, the tense
debate between Desslok and Ekogaru continued.
"This is a star system
claimed by the Gamilon Empire as a memorial to our former glory and the glory
of Iscandar. We were civilized peoples. What are you?"
"Your God," said
Ekogaru. Then, there was a pause.
"My Lord,"
whispered Yvona in his ear. "I'm picking up Aliscea. I think she's on the Argo.
Do you want her captured alive?"
Ekogaru nodded curtly at
Yvona once. Then, he turned again to Desslok. "Well?" he said.
"What of my divinity, Gamilon?"
"We shall see, you
abomination."
"My claim is true,
Gamilon."
"Is it?" said
Desslok.
A moment later, the Argo
and her Gamilon escorts warped in near the rear of the fleet.
"My God, look at that
thing," muttered Venture as he and the rest of the Argo's bridge
crew actually beheld their enemy for the first time.
"It's over fifteen
thousand kilometers in diameter," whispered Nova as she scanned it.
"Its mass is greater than that of Earth!"
"It has the restrained
energy of a good-sized star in its power plant," said Sandor after he
looked at his instruments. "If it explodes, it could take this whole
system out."
"And us with it?"
said Holly fearfully.
Sandor nodded.
"That thing makes the
Comet Empire seem like a toy," said Dash.
Homer sat up at his post. "Hey, everyone! Desslok's talking to the Dark
Lord!"
"What?" said
Captain Wildstar. He raised his hand, but everyone
left their posts and ran off towards Homer's station. Shrugging to himself, he
followed.
Just like the time
Zordar and Trelaina had their chat, Derek thought. But what can Desslok do, I wonder? Sure,
he has a huge fleet, but can even he defeat that? Is he going to try to attack
that thing? Isn't that Aliscea's job?
Desslok chuckled. "You
misunderstand me. To my people, I am a god and great victor. I understand that
you are a murderer and a practitioner of genocide."
"So are you, Gamilon.
I am Ekogaru the Great. I am great. Are you not also a murderer of
innocents?"
"Only
because our people were dying. I have since seen that there is a different path. I mean to
take it. But, to ensure the peace of this local Group, I demand that you depart
from here and return from whence you came. In light of your power and
technological accomplishments, I am giving you one warning. If you do not heed
it, I will be forced to attack you."
Ekogaru just laughed like a
maniac. "An organic, telling ME what to do?"
"You don't know me,
Ekogaru."
"Oh, shut up,"
smiled the Dark Lord. "Yvona...let's play a duet."
"What good will that do?" demanded Desslok.
"You'll se," said
Ekogaru. He signalled for the line to Desslok's ship
to be closed.
"Are we turned towards
that planet?" said Ekogaru.
"We are, sir,"
said Vergar.
"Let's play,"
said Ekogaru. "Yvona..."
Yvona hit a strange,
brittle, and discordant chord. Reddish energy surges roared from the Fortress a
moment later.
Then, a second later,
Ekogaru and Yvona began to play a distorted, warped version of Bach's
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor that went out over all of the comm bands. The
volume was so high that it came out of the organ sounding more like a bizarre,
twisted noise than music. It was the sort of effect that a teenager would get
if he was in a rebellious mood and turned the volume up to "30" on
his home stereo system.
The sounds were so loud
that, on the Argo, the bridge speakers blew out after three
"notes" and the communications panel exploded in a shower of sparks.
Homer got up screaming...his arm was on fire.
Nova grabbed him and beat
out the flames with her bare hands, ignoring the pain. Behind her, Venture and
Dash ran up with fire extinguishers and put out the blaze.
The result was much the
same on most of the Gamilon Fleet. Ship after ship went silent with dead comm
systems, bridge fires...some of the smaller destroyers even exploded due to
massive overloads and shorts. In a moment, a Fleet that had drawn back together
and become a disciplined fighting unit again was blown apart like dust in the
wind.
"Get them to
regroup!" demanded Desslok on his flagship as, with cold going through his
body, it was evident that Sanzarat was dying. Beam
after beam blasted into the small planet. The Gamilon listening post was already
history.
"Sir, communications
are out," said Talan.
Desslok snarled at the
microphone in his hand and then flung it to the deck in utter frustration.
Finally, the Phased Density
Cannon went off. Its green energy roared deep into Sanzarat's
core, and, in a few moments, the planet glowed red, and then abruptly ceased to
exist.
The Fortress then roared
onwards like a steamroller, gathering speed with a deranged suddenness.
Then, refreshed by the
energy surge, it warped again.
"It's gone," said
a crewman on Desslok's flagship.
"Did you get a course
heading on it?" asked Talan.
"I did, sir. You...and
the Leader won't like it..."
"Speak, man!"
roared Talan as he shook the frightened crewman. "Where is it going?"
"Gamilon."
IV. PASSICAGLIA AND
FUGUE IN C MINOR (First Movement)
The Vicinity of Planet
Gamilon
Wednesday, March 3, 2202
0821 Hours Spacetime
"Warp completed, my
Lord," said a crewman over the intercom to Ekogaru's Audience Chamber.
"Excellent," said
Ekogaru. He smiled at Yvona. "Wasn't Sanzarat a
great meal?"
"Yes, and the deaths
of those Gamilons," smiled Yvona. "And the fear in the hearts of the
men on that Fleet. So much for the great Desslok, hm?"
"Oh, he'll pay in
time," said Ekogaru. "Now, for his planet."
"Are we going to feed
again?" asked Yvona.
"No, we're not...at
least not fully. All I need from the planet is the Gamilasihum.
It is a radioactive element; useful for energy transmission units. It will help
build my Fleet." Ekogaru smiled as he pulled out stops on his organ.
"Gamilon will not die. It will be raped and remade."
"Oh," said Yvona.
"Do not fear. It will
be a base for us. I mean to take it after I take Earth," said Ekogaru with
a warped smile. "Passicaglia and Fugue in C
Minor, Yvona. Second Movement, please."
"What about the
Gamilons?" said Yvona. "Won't they want it
back?"
"After I check out
Iscandar, a garrison is going down there, of course," said Ekogaru.
"Don't worry. They'll live. For my ends...let's play again."
They began to plan just as
Desslok's fleet began to advance upon the Fortress from the rear.
A battle started up.
Ekogaru ignored it as he and Yvona played.
Beam after beam smashed
into Gamilon a moment later. First, the planet's stony outer crust began to
cave in; just as it had during the Argo's attack two years ago. Only,
now, the cataclysm was planet-wide.
On Gamilon, in the chaos,
volcano after volcano began to erupt. Soon, the planet was festooned with
tongues of magma and lava as it began to come apart.
To Desslok, this was intolerable.
"All ships, stand back!" he said in an
enraged tone as sweat ran down his brow. "Signal that, to the Fleet with signal lights too, Talan!" he demanded. "Bring up
the Desslok gun!'"
"But, sir...we only
have seven hundred ships left. We've lost almost a third of the Fleet in the
past few minutes!"
"Our home..."
said Desslok through tears. "He's destroying it!
Our dead don't even have graves any longer! I want Gamilon to live, if only as
a memorial! Obey me, Talan!"
"Yessir," said
Talan through a sob.
"Bring up the Desslok
gun," repeated another crewman.
The huge brazen firing unit
came up. With a snarl on his face, Desslok grasped the firing lever.
"One minute to
firing!" said a crewman. "Energy charge now at
eighty-five percent!"
"Good," said
Desslok. He was shaking with delight. "I'll stop you," he
raged.
On the Argo, as the
blaze had been put out after Nova had taken Homer to Sickbay, communications
had been restored through the board on Bridge Number Three and then patched up
to the first bridge. "Toriyama!" said
Wildstar to the enlisted crewman who had taken Homer's post on Bridge Three.
"Patch us through to Desslok's flagship! I've got to tell him to stop
that! He'll die!"
"Yessir," said Toriyama.
A moment later, Desslok's
image came up on the main screen. "Wildstar," he said. "I'm not
going to stop! That madman is threatening everything we hold dear, and he'll
turn his guns on Iscandar, Starsha, and Aliscea next! I've got to stop him
somehow!"
"But, Desslok, you'll
die...like Lysis did."
"Then I'll meet him in
our version of your
Then, the screen went dark.
Wildstar screamed out Desslok's name as the Gamilon fired.
Out in space, Gamilon was
now a boiling, surging and burning ball of flame surrounded with a weird red
field that came from the Fortress. The molten world was being sucked dry of its
valuable resources and then, as Ekogaru continued to play his warped fugue,
another beam began to cool the planet down.
But, Desslok didn't know
that. He watched as the pink surge of energy from his ship's cannon blasted out
towards the Technomugar Fortress and did....
...absolutely
nothing. The deadly beam glanced off the huge
black carapace of the Fortress like a pebble thrown by a child.
A moment later, a deadly
stream of fire surged from the Fortress after the fields around Gamilon were
released. Gamilon continued to glow, but its burning was soon overshadowed by
the ferocity of Ekogaru's attack upon Desslok's fleet.
Ship after ship died. Carriers. Destroyers. Cruisers. Battleships. None of them
had a chance to fight. The Gamilon Empire lost two hundred more ships in just
three minutes.
Even the Gamilstadt was battered. Desslok
turned to speak to Talan, and was knocked to the deck by a sudden explosion as
his blue command cruiser took a horrible direct hit.
He struggled to his feet.
"Talan, can we manuever? We have to
counterattack!"
"We can," said
Talan. "But, you'll have to help me, sir. Then you may have to help in
damage control efforts. Perhaps..."
Desslok looked around, and,
to his shock, he heard Astrena's voice in his mind.
Desslok, my love, you've
done enough. Thank you. But, now, I need you. Your son in my womb needs you.
Your people need you. Stand down and leave the rest to my daughter.
"Your daughter,"
said Desslok.
Yes, your stepdaughter. Hurry.
Desslok nodded.
"What was that,
sir?" said Talan.
"Aliscea," sighed Desslok. "We can't do any more for Gamilon now.
Signal a retreat."
"Yessir."
"This is weird,"
said Sandor. He was gazing at the dials and readouts at his post.
"What is it?"
said Captain Wildstar. Behind him, the lift door opened. Nova came back onto
the bridge with the sheen of an artificial burn skin covering the heel of her
left hand.
"Are you all
right?" asked Derek as he turned to her.
"Hand stings, but I'll
live," said Nova. "What's happening to Gamilon?"
"It's cooling,"
said Sandor. "The planet's temperature has dropped two hundred degrees
Kelvin in the past ten minutes. And look at it," he said as he brought up
a view of it on the main screen. "It looks like it's surrounded by
clouds...and what we can see of the surface seems to be monoepidermal,
so to speak."
"Uh, could you say
that in English?" said Venture.
"I mean...it used to
have that outer crust and inner crust? Remember? Now, it's like Earth...it's
got just one crust, which seems to be forming now. I don't know what kind of
power that Fortress has, but it appears that they can not only destroy worlds;
they can also remake them in a new image. This may sound blasphemous, but
Ekogaru's power seems to be almost godlike. I'd love to know how he did
this," mused Sandor.
"What did he do?"
said Dash.
"It looks like he
fixed Gamilon. And, if I'm not mistaken...he's going to do the same to
Iscandar," said Sandor.
"Oh, no!" said
Nova. "Derek, he's going to kill everyone on Iscandar!"
Derek held Nova as she
tried to hold back the sobs. They were helpless to do anything as the ugly, horrid, Fortress turned towards Iscandar and began to scan
the planet...
"No life signs,"
said Gralnacz. "Nothing's alive down there. Do you wish to commence the
operation now? We have those arrogant Gamilons scattered, and our landing party
will be ready to hit Gamilon in an hour after it cools."
"We might as well get
to it," said Ekogaru. He began to adjust the stops on his organ again.
"Yvona, you suggest a song this time."
"Beethoven" she
said with a smile. "Fur Eloise for organ."
"I haven't heard it,
so you play this time, Yvona."
"Marvelous,
my Lord," Yvona smiled, glad that she was being given a solo. She grabbed Ekogaru and kissed his
mouth, mingling her abominable tongue with his as she touched him openly in a
lewd, disgusting and suggestive manner that most couples saved for the bedroom
or an isolated meadow or beach.
On Iscandar, Aliscea
smiled. She was alone now, except for Paul. Even Starsha didn't want to look
her doom right in the face. The Fortress now loomed in Iscandar's sky, almost
as large as Gamilon herself.
"Paul."
"Yes,
Aliscea?"
She kissed him. "This
might be our last kiss," she whispered.
The two lovers shared a
searching, deep kiss. Their tongues touched, and Paul touched his wife's rump
and held her close. Tears ran down his cheeks as he held the glowing woman
close to him, not wanting to let go.
"I'm ready," she
whispered. "Please let go."
Paul nodded and stood back.
Immediately, Aliscea burned
bright like a beacon. She threw out her arms and screamed at the sky.
"This is a communication from Aliscea
of Pellias and the peoples of Pellias, Iscandar, Gamilon, and Earth directly to
Ekogaru the Great himself! Ekogaru! I demand your answer!"
Paul was simply speechless.
He had never heard Aliscea use such a loud voice before. He didn't know how she
expected to reach HIM like that without a comm unit.
A minute later, Ekogaru
responded with one, loud, thunderous word. "Yes?"
"LEAVE!" demanded Aliscea in an equally
thunderous voice. She now no longer looked human. She looked more like an
avenging Angel of Death.
Ekogaru simply laughed. His
laughter shattered crystal buildings on Iscandar. His laughter blew a
hurricane-force wind in Aliscea's face that almost blinded Paul Rosstowski.
His laughter made Iscandar
shake.
On the Fortress, Yvona was
ready to play.
On Iscandar, Aliscea threw
back her head, extended her arms, and then...
...she screamed.
Something that looked like
lightning mixed with fire roared up from Aliscea's hands. It looked as if the
Pellian had somehow become a human wave motion gun beam.
The beam started small, but
it gathered strength, size, and punch as it roared up into the sky of Iscandar.
The beam was a meter wide
when it left Aliscea's hands.
It was ten meters wide when
it went a few hundred meters up...when it pierced Iscandar's lower atmosphere,
it was twenty kilometers wide and growing wider.
When it roared into space,
it was several hundred kilometers wide.
Yvona never got to play a
note. She screamed and fell against Ekogaru as the expanding field smashed into
the Technomugar Fortress.
For the first time in
thousands of years, the arrogant construction rocked.
The massive ship creaked
and groaned about the Dark Lord. The field began to crush it, snapping off
towers, killing Technomugar troops like flies.
Ekogaru's cyborg legions
began to die as they were literally roasted alive inside the blue, burning
field.
Status reports began to
roar in to Ekogaru.
"What?" he roared
back. "You're losing control?"
"Yessir," said a
frightened voice. "It's...it's...beginning to break up...it's..."
Ekogaru screamed as he fell
to the deck with purplish blood pouring from his nose.
"My Lord!" cried
Yvona.
Ekogaru blew his nose and
more blood came out. "Aliscea!" he yelled. "Attack!
Destroy that planet!"
"Lord, we can't
attack....we..."
Ekogaru heard a beeping
noise and ran to a screen. "Gralnacz! Vergar!
We're losing structural integrity! WARP US OUT OF HERE!"
"Lord, if we warp, I
don't know where we'll go...or how much of the ship we'll..."
"Then do it!"
roared Ekogaru. He gritted his teeth and screamed, "I can't even TOUCH
Aliscea! My psionic enhancements are useless! WARP!"
"Sir, we're beginning
to explo..."
"DO IT!"
Just as fire burst out of
the Technomugar Fortress, it disappeared in a great burst of light.
On the Argo, a loud
burst of cheering went up.
"Yeah!" yelled
Dash. "Aliscea did it!"
"Yaaaah!" yelled
Hardy as he ran up on the bridge. "We won!"
Dash and Hardy cheered, and
Nova got up and hugged Derek. "I think she did it, Derek! I'm so
happy!"
"Yeah!" said
Derek as he hugged her.
Nova laughed, feeling as if
she wanted to dance. A minute later, she did for a moment. Holly got up and
hugged Venture from behind, and Yamazaki shook hands with Derek. "Does
this mean we can get home soon?"
"Maybe," said
Derek. "I hope so...."
"Hmmm," said
Sandor. "I picked up something odd in that ball of gas. Hard to
analyze...this might take days."
"But we...I
mean...Aliscea finished that thing, didn't she?" said Nova.
"I think she
did," said Sandor to a fresh burst of cheering. Conroy had heard the news,
and he was followed by Doctor Sane and IQ-9. IQ was carrying a huge case of
sake.
"Let's
celebrate!" yelled Doctor Sane. "Look at that beautiful sight,"
he said with a sniff while taking off his glasses to wipe away tears of joy.
"This is the icing on the cake. All of that fighting finally accomplished
something!"
The comm unit above
Wildstar's Combat Station below the bridge window beeped. "Yes?" he
said as he brought up the mike at his post.
"I have Rosstowski on
the line. Voice-only."
"Patch him
through."
"This is
Rosstowski," he said. "Aliscea's very weak, but she just came out of
her trance. She says she doesn't feel Ekogaru anywhere in the area. He must be
dead, she thinks. And Starsha agrees with her."
"Paul, give her our
thanks. We'll be landing on back Iscandar soon." He looked at what Sandor
was doing and noticed he had a readout of Gamilon up
at his post. "Sandor's analyzing what happened to Gamilon. It seems to
have undergone some kind of...metamorphosis."
"Well, that's not the
most important thing at the moment," said Rosstowski, "even though
Desslok might think so, perhaps. The important thing is that we finally
finished off Ekogaru! YEAAAH!"
"Yeah, we did," said
Derek as tears of joy ran from his eyes at last. At last, he was beginning to
believe it. "We'll see you guys later on Iscandar."
V. VICTORY (??)
Planet Iscandar
Wednesday, March 3, 2202
1745 Hours Spacetime
Queen Starsha knew that
there was going to be a party. So, she let the celebrants have it on a very
appropriate place; aboard the Argo, which was now back
alongside the quay near
Behind it, also at anchor,
sat the Gamilstadt, bobbing peacefully in the water. Starsha had finally
allowed Desslok to set foot on Iscandar again both as a token of goodwill and
also in appreciation for what the Gamilons, after all, had done to defend
Iscandar along with Earth.
On the Argo's
weather deck, an impromptu sound system had been set up. Something like
big-band music played in the background as Nova (with Derek's full consent)
shared a jitterbug with Fraken of Gamilon. Luckily, for her, Fraken seemed to
pick up Terran dancing fairly quickly; Nova's toes were quite safe from being
trodden upon, even though she had changed back into her pink dress and dress
sandals.
Derek ran by, carrying a
bottle of sake. He was still in his Star Force whites. Nova, without missing a
beat, grabbed the bottle from his hand and took a quick swig, and then wiped
the lip of the bottle and offered some to Fraken.
"I'm not sure,"
he said.
"It's good, try
some!" giggled Nova.
Fraken shrugged and he took
some. "Not bad!" he said. Another Gamilon officer ran up. Mystified,
he took some. Then, he smiled. "You Terrans brew good stuff!" he
said, clapping Wildstar on the back as "In The
Mood" came to an end.
Everyone around applauded,
and Wildstar looked up at the sky. "I can't believe she did it,
Nova," said Derek.
"Oh, she did,"
said Nova with a smile. She put an arm around her husband and gave him a kiss
on the nose. "I wonder what's coming up next?"
"Did you make up the
program?"
"No...someone from my Group did, along with someone from the
Gamilon side."
Nova smiled as something
that sounded like alien Viennese waltz music came up. "Is that
Gamilon?" said Derek.
"I think so,"
said Nova. "Sounds like Strauss, doesn't it? Let's dance to this..."
"Good news!" said
Sandor as he ran up. He tried to follow the Captain and Nova as they twirled
around the deck together.
"Yeah?" said
Derek.
"This had better be
good, I'm dancing, Steve," said Nova as she pretended to punch Sandor in
the nose.
"Well, I analyzed
Gamilon. It's cooled more, the surface has stabilized, and it's raining."
"Probably raining
acid," said Derek.
"It may not be. The
Gamilons are helping us do a spectral analysis. It doesn't look like
acid."
"What might it
be?"
"Water," said
Sandor. "And the crust seems to be thicker than it was before."
"Steve," said
Nova "does that mean that...?"
"It means that if things
go a certain way, and if the sulfur is somehow out of the loop, Gamilon may
be a livable planet again. That's why Desslok left in such a hurry. He's back
there on his ship discussing the preliminary scans with some of his engineers.
When things are stable enough, if the planet's ecosystem isn't filled with acid
all over again, he may want to send an expedition after the exploration robots
go down and back. Of course, no Technomugar troops ever got to land on Gamilon.
Aliscea kind of kept that from happening."
"Can I go down?"
said IQ-9. "I'm not just a robot. I'm a genius robot!"
"I'll have to talk to
Desslok about that," said Sandor. "But, yes, tinwit, you might be
able to go down and do some exploring."
"Oh boy, I hope I
don't melt in the rain."
"Wear a
raincoat!" giggled Nova.
"Are you drunk?"
asked IQ.
"No, giggly,"
said Doctor Sane. "There's a difference between drunk and giggly. You
should know it."
"Let me check,"
said IQ-9. He poured some sake over himself and then began to hiccup.
"Hic," he said. "Now I'm drunk!"
Holly Parsons, who was in
shorts and a t-shirt, laughed at that one, squealing as Venture caught her from
behind in a hug. They began to kiss against the nearby weather deck railing,
oblivious to IQ's antics for a minute.
The robot ran off hiccupping
as Nova giggled a little more and took Mimi out of Doctor Sane's arms for a
minute. She looked very happy, playing "get me" with Mimi as the cat
tried to paw at her hand. A current 23rd century pop hit played in the
background. The singer was singing in Japanese, and it was a very cute piece.
Nova thought the title was "Two Loves". She rather liked it.
"H4ey, look!"
yelled Homer, who was in good spirits, even though his arm was bandaged up.
"Aliscea's here!"
"All right!"
yelled Diane Henson as Paul helped a slightly shaky Aliscea up the gangplank.
"Tell us, Aliscea. Is he really dead?"
"Well, I don't feel
his presence, and I didn't feel him warp, but...yeah...Paul and Starsha and
Astra and I agree that he's dead."
"YEAAH!" yelled
Diane. She showered Aliscea with kisses and hoisted the protesting girl in the
black dress up onto her shoulders. "Let's all give a big hand for Aliscea
Rosstowski! Thanks to her, Mark Venture and Holly Parsons can go home, get
married, and have a hot wedding night!"
"Yes!" yelled
Hardy as he ran up and kissed a protesting Aliscea's left foot (easy to reach,
since Diane was lifting her up on her shoulders and Aliscea wore her usual
sandals). "Sorry, ma'am, but that's only because ah can't reach yoah lips!"
"I protest!" said
Rosstowski. "Those lips belong to me!"
Tatiana Lubyanska ran up
(in a swimsuit) and offered Diane some sake. She took the bottle and took a
swig.
On the deck, some old 20th
century Earth music began to play.
"Excuse me," said
Fraken as he came up (with a giggling Terran nurse from the Argo holding
hands with him) "Captain Wildstar, can you explain the words of this
song?"
"Words?" said
Derek.
"Yes. What is...I
quote "a Super Freak?""
At that, Venture and
Wildstar began to laugh.
Later on, Derek was sitting
alone in the Argo's communications booth, speaking with Commanding
General Singleton. He had affected a more formal appearance, putting his
peacoat and ascot back on for his talk with the Commander.
"So, Ekogaru is
defeated?"
"We're 95% sure,
sir," said Derek. "At any rate, we know that he's not in the system,
and the Gamilons even found debris from that Fortress of his. They're analyzing
it now to see what's happened."
Singleton closed his eyes
for a moment. "We owe Aliscea a great debt of thanks," said the
Commander. "Anything that we can do for her and Ensign
Rosstowski...well...it won't be enough."
"I was thinking,
sir," said Wildstar. "He's been such a supportive influence for her,
and he's served so well...can we promote him to Lieutenant? Him
and Hemsford."
"I don't have anything
to say against it," said the Commander. "As for the Rikashans...the
threat is gathering. How soon do you think you can be back?"
"Desslok has helped us
to assist him in analyzing the results of Gamilon's apparent change and I've
also offered to help any survey parties with food and medical assistance. We
also have to analyze what became of the Fortress. Can we begin heading back in
two weeks, sir?"
"Two weeks....that
means you'd be back in a month afterwards....around the middle of April.
Permission granted, Wildstar, but you might be subject to recall sooner if we
need you."
"Of course, sir,"
said Derek as he saluted. "You can count on us, sir."
"One
last thing. What
effect does Aliscea think Ekogaru's death will have upon the Rikashans?'
"She thinks that maybe
his death will disillusion them. Maybe they might even abort their holy
war?"
"If that's the case,
maybe we've just been delivered today, Captain. I'll be in touch," said
Singleton.
He and Wildstar shared a
salute, and the screen went blank.
Well, that's that, thought Wildstar. Wonder what
Nova's up to? She said she had work to do...
It was around twenty-three
hundred when Wildstar got back up to their quarters.
When he got there, he found
Nova sitting on their bunk in full uniform, although she had taken her gunbelt
off. She looked very quiet.
"Nova?" asked
Derek as he shrugged out of the peacoat he had put on to talk with the
Commander. "Are you all right?"
"Well, I was giggly
before, but getting back into my uniform and doing some work got me thinking,
Derek. Probably a silly fear, but..."
"But
what?"
"Derek, what if he's
not really dead?"
"Who?"
"The Dark Lord,"
she said as she put her face against her knees and shivered. "What if
Aliscea didn't kill him? What if he's just hurt? And mad? A
wounded animal is the most dangerous creature I know of, Derek."
"Nova, Aliscea said
she's dead. I wish you'd believe her. And Starsha. And
our instruments..."
"Guess I should,"
she sighed. "I guess I'm just being a silly old goose."
"Hey..." he said
as he stroked her hair. "I can take care of
that..."
"Derek," she said
in a tiny voice.
At that, Derek sat on the
bed and they embraced. Then, his hand began to undo the zipper on the back of
Nova's uniform.
"What are you
doing?" asked Nova.
"Getting
you ready for bed."
"I'm not sleepy,"
she whispered.
She stroked Derek's cheek
and gave him a kiss.
"Please, get back to
what you were doing...with that zipper..."
"Nova..."
45,000 Lightyears Away
From Iscandar
At the Same Time....
"They broke it,"
said a deep voice filled with rage. "They broke my dream. They broke my
organ," he hissed.
In the smoking room,
Ekogaru the Great picked some keys up from off his organ and threw them to the
floor.
"Close to a million
are dead," said Vergar as he coughed, fanning away some smoke.
"How is Yvona?"
said Ekogaru.
"She's still being
looked over by the doctors, Lord. They think she'll live."
"How's the warp
mechanism?" said Ekogaru.
"Still broken,"
said Vergar. "We can't go anywhere...yet. And the Phased Density
Cannon..."
"Spare me," said
Ekogaru as he lifted his hand. It still had some of his "blood" on
it. "Broken, right?"
"Yes, Lord. They're
beginning to wonder if you are really in..."
"SILENCE!" said
Ekogaru. "I may be beaten...for the nonce. I may be down, but I am not
out. I have other plans. One way or the other, Aliscea of Pellias shall pay. NO
ONE thwarts the plans of Ekogaru! NO ONE!"
To Be Continued With Act Five: "Farewell,
Iscandar"
THERE ARE NOW ??? DAYS TO THE ARRIVAL OF EKOGARU IN EARTH'S SOLAR
SYSTEM
To return to the Introduction to the Rikasha Incident please click here